The Changing Perception of Brandon Roy

I still believe in Roy and his ability to lead us to the promised land. He is the only player on the roster I would pretty much never consider trading (baring something like Roy for LeBron straight up).

All you need to know to see this is how I and everyone else at the start of game 4 last season. When Roy came out, the spirits of the RG lifted approximately 1 million times over. No other player on this team can do that or likely every will.

So high, in fact, that he had trouble living up to it this past season.

and it will never diminish, even long after he retires. I have a Bayless jersey, Aldridge jersey and Oden jersey……I have 4 Brandon Roy jerseys (including a sick purple Washington jersey).

Brandon Roy IS the Portland TrailBlazers and he will end up by far as the greatest player in franchise history.

P.S. He is better than Chris Paul, so no, I would not do a straight up trade of the two.

this line sums up the debate as I see it:

Portland has to find a way to work through, not around, Brandon if they are to succeed.

Once that puzzle is solved this offense should click routinely. We know it can, we have seen it happen. The Chicago and Memphis games last year were remarkable offensive displays.

Yes, maybe objectively CP3>Roy. But as a Blazers fan, you have the obligation to reverse that equation: Roy>>>>CP3.

1. He’s awesome.
2. He’s humble.
3. He’s got all the heart you’d ever ask for.
4. He makes other players better through all of the above.
5. I (heart) him.

And Knowing his work ethic we all know he will do everything in his heart to earn it-Thats all I ask. Roy is not the problem with this team I am finding myself increasingly annoyed with Aldridges softness though. I am not 100% certain Aldridge will respond well to a big $ deal like he got.

and it bottomed during the playoffs when he had a sub-par series (obviously mainly because of injury). But when I step back and give it some time I remember how good Roy is and how he is most definitely our franchise player.

Lets build around him. Do everything we can to make him successful.

…He dropped 42 against Ron Artest & Shane Battier in his first playoffs series.

Brandon never ceases to amaze and ranks second to only Kobe (though I hate to admit it) in clutch play in the NBA.

He’s not perfect. But too often he comes pretty damn close.

can you build around roy. he is so slow paced, has to have the ball in his hands, mediocre half caring about defense at times. he is probably tough to build around. its above my head. as hardcore a blazer fan as i am i still am not stupid. if i could get a starting allstar for a bench guy allstar id do it in a sec. also i think there are more risks to his body than have been let on and will perpetuate with his style of play. as a lover of placing blame somewhere, when all is said and done i dont think Roy will necessaryily have anything to do with whether or not we are sucessfull during the Roy era. Hopefully cho will change things but management has blown alot of opportunities the last few years. dont tell me ptown with pa will never draw any bigtime guys. first we have to establish ourselves as perenial winners and bring a level of toughness year in and out. i think players will respect that. i think mgmt has more to do with than any 30+ pts roy may have by cutting down on mistakes and lost opportunities. we have taken character alittle to the extreme and it is important but id like to see a focus changed alittle towards toughness and win or lose, pounding the crap out of our opponents on any nite. not to mention!!!!! other than 1 or 2 isolated games in the playoffs, we have never shown up. all the good teams step it up, eliminate turnovers, errors, seemingly make every shot, when the playoffs arrive they automatically step up their game. to date i havent see that out of the blazers on a consistant basis in the playoffs by the blazers and dont give me any unfortunate matchup excuses, houston and phoenix looked pretty favorable untill we got beat up.

camby will fill up the slack but if one goes down…..not so good

He’s the Portland Trail Blazers. Our best player.

Easy top 10 player in the league, good scorer and playmaker, able to play good defense in spots but it’s obviously the weakest aspect of his game… he’s a superstar.

Oden might be the most important player, in my opinion, but Brandon Roy is the best player.

Roy had hammy problems holding him back, but those will go away. I don’t worry about the knee. He is one of the best players in the league and will be again. I’d never wanna trade him (unless we’re talking about the theoritical situation, such as a Roy for CP3 deal— it won’t happen, its moot).

Some might be forgetting how good Roy is, but they’ll remember again soon.

Mortimer

who would i trade broy for? lj, kobe, wade, carmelo, pgashole, cpaul, durant, mabey garnett but prob not

He needs to retire as a Blazer. He’s the perfect personality, northwest grown, and an amazing player. I would rather go deep into the playoffs every year with Broy and company than win titles with Lebron. But for me it’s more about the journey and the experience than about winning at all costs.

As a player, Brandon’s game vexes me. His game has several gears and all of them aren’t always functioning. When the top gear kicks in, nobody in the league can stop him, he’s the quickest player on the court and a dynamic offensive force. But other times you see him on the court with someone like Deron Williams and he’s blown away.

Brandon has this exceptional ability to elevate his focus and effort to another level and when he peaks his game is beautiful to behold. He can maintain this elite level of play for weeks at a time, but there are other stretches of play where he seems ordinary and slow. I wonder how often we will see the transcendent Brandon versus the solid/borderline all-star Brandon.

Undoubtedly there are flaws in Brandon’s game. He doesn’t have the speed to run the court, he is best suited playing with the ball in his hands so finding a PG to pair with him will always be difficult, and he is an average defender (except for those rare end of the game occasions when he really does play defense and plays really well). I can live with these imperfections, because I know Brandon is always playing hard and wants to win.

I do think Brandon can lead the team to a title, but in the same vein as when Chauncey Billups led the Pistons to a championship. To win we ultimately need Oden to stay healthy and Batum to develop into the player for which we all have hoped.

roy started the new era out of darkness and wade won the ring
injuries injuries injuries! fans views of both players drop a bit.

hopefully there will be a new revival with a healthy roy and oden.

this also mirrors his college career where injuries set him back his junior year after being solid to start out…but came back his senior year and now his jersey is retired.

so first off I have been following blazersedge for a while I have just never felt inclined to chime in until now. Guys… I really need to get this off my chest, and at the same time realize I will probably ruffle a few feathers in the process but I have to say this. First a short story. So I currently reside in tualatin, and last week I went to my local bank to make a deposit and when I pull up low and behold some jackass in a brand new white chrystler 300 with dealer plates and brand spankin new white rims (which didn’t go that well with the ride I might add) was parked running directly next to a no parking sign. I thought gee what a jackass I wonder who in the bank is pulling this… and I walk in the entrance and low and behold B-roy is at the first tellers spot doing some business. Nice to see stardome hasn’t affected brandon yet. Anyways onto my comments on roy, he is so far the most talented blazer we have at the moment, BUT brandon is NOT a superstar, he is going to be nothing more than a perennial all-star team bench player. He isn’t a kobe, isn’t a lebron, and isn’t a dewayne wade. I honestly think brandon’s inability to create off the ball is his single biggest downfall. I personally lost alot of respect for brandon when all the drama with dre coming to portland went down, it seemed like brandon wasn’t willing to put his friendship with blake aside and make an honest effort to play ball with the better point guard and I think he also used his influence with mcmillan to influence this situation. So that being said, I would not mind seeing brandon go in a trade for CP3, I think people forget how bad the blazers chemistry was last season before oden went down, and with roy, oden and aldridge healthy nate is going to go back to having problems getting his team to work. (And I base this on many years of couch coaching and have developed my own thesis on mcmillan not knowning how to coach a big man oriented offense rather than a guard oriented offense but won’t get into that) flame on boys

(and it’s been muted criticism. With qualifiers. More like: is he great? Or just awesome, and running into some barriers…)

But one of those things, at least in one theory, may have less to do with Roy himself, and more to do with how opposing defenses have keyed in on his game. When he first came on to the scene, I think he took people by surprise. That includes opposing defenses, who became stymied by this multi-prong, swiss army knife of a player. He had every trick in the book at a young age, and played at his own pace. Defenders were left scrambling, and because he was such a special, unique player, it took more than the normal amount of time to try and adapt.

We pretty much loved him for that: he also took fans by surprise, and we Blazer fans bonded with him big-time. As well we should. But flushed by success, and the league accolades he was snatching up, I imagine some of us thought he was on a direct flight to invincible. This season, and maybe even starting a little bit near the end of the previous season, I feel like we saw what happens on several occasions what happens when a good team commits to shutting down Roy. Early double teams, modified zones, whatever it takes … the offensive strategy of “give it to Brandon and watch” became a little bit exposed. Certainly the injuries ought to be taken into account. But it would also foolish not to give any credit to how other teams have started to make Roy’s job a little harder. Those famous drives into the lane, the loud yelps not withstanding, seemed just a little less productive this year.

Of course it’s not just a one man team. Is it all on him, or on the guys spacing the floor and missing the jump shots? This leads to the second thing: people starting to become unsatisfied with the overall Blazer offense. That may be a totally separate topic for an article and discussion. This isn’t necessarily about people disliking Roy. Nate’s always has his critics— at least when there’s a loss— and there’s always been a few fans on the sidelines that just don’t enjoy the current Blazer system, in terms of pace, ball movement, coaching philosophy, or what have you. But because Roy is the central player— and to be fair, much of the offensive style is based around his strengths and weaknesses— it’s hard to separate the player from the offense. Also, because this last season had so many injuries— Roy included— and changes, it seemed like everything was changing on an almost month-to-month basis. Various players stepped up, but little wonder that it would seem like a tougher, down season for one Brandon Roy. Even though his overall numbers still were very respectable. The fan perception Dave alludes to may have a lot to do with that.

To be fair, it’s not like the Blazers, and Roy, didn’t accomplish a lot last year. And no matter what, you totally have to love the guy. I think the sneaking suspicions and doubts may have as much to do with fears of what happens against future playoff opponents when they clamp down on Brandon Roy, as much as anything else. As great as our boy is, that’s still a worry.

Are there only a handful of players that most most of us would even consider trading him for? Sure. Some of us would say no players, for both practical and sentimental reasons, and it’s hard to argue with that, too. But all of this is worth a conversation about where it goes from here. His limits, his teammates, and what will happen against elite level playoff competition, where teams make adjustments, and an offense based on riding one player only can go so far.

Lastly, the guy is great. He’s done nothing but surprise us, and he may not be done evolving. Will it be enough, and can the Blazers go all he way with the current, very Roy-centric team? I guess it’s hard to say, but that may be what eyes start closely watching.

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you may get what you need”

Paul Pierce. Which isn’t bad, but I don’t think he’ll ever reach that Wade/Kobe level.

Still Brandon Roy is a rare player. He has real NBA skill. Not athletic dominance, but I wonder where his talent can get us.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7063

These stats have B-Roy as one of the leagues most efficient scorers against above-average defenses (h/t True Hoop). Defenders may recognize his tricks more readily now, but they’re obviously not much better at stopping him.

I think BRoy thinks too much.
I remember he was thinking that he should dedicate himself more on D and went out and played great D for a couple of games, but found out it took away from his offensive game so he slacked off.

He got to tired in the first play-offs so he decided to take the summer off from BB, put on a little wt to help his offensive game. That made him sluggish, his shot was off and he wasn’t as effective.

He got hurt, but decided that he could give the team more support if he went out with one leg and played.

Now, he woke up and realizes he needs to be in better shape when the season starts so he is going all out.

That is why some fan’s are saying what’s next.

To me BRoy can be what ever he wants to be, but not all at the same time. He shut down Wade and Carmelo in games last year, he out shot Wade and Kobe, so he can do it all.

I still think the fan’s are to quick to judge. He was injured and trying to coast doing regular season to give himself more energy doing the play-offs and of course with his injury that didn’t happen. I also think that not going full out and just pushing it to the limits occasionally causes injuries.

Therefore, I believe He is great, guilty of mistakes like all humans, but is always thinking of ways to make himself better and that may be where his problems Begin’s and we see so many faces.

Translation – he can lead us to a ring, but he needs as good or better of a supporting cast as Kobe has right now (or the TP/Kersey/Buck/Duck/Ainge/Cliffy supporting cast that Clyde had).

Roy’s a terrific player. ‘08-’09 Roy was something to behold. Need to see that guy again, along with some better effort on defense.

I want a championship now, I don’t want to wait for Roy to develop. The ’Zer’s need to starch while the iron is hot and build around Miller to WIN NOW. Cash in the chips Cho!

Nice job putting into words the feelings about Roy that has been in the back of many blazer fans’ mind for a while now. I think if we take a serious level-headed evaluation of Roy there is no way you can not like the guy. He definitely has improved his game every year. He’s worked very hard to overcome injury obstacles, and he’s done the absolute best he can to be the leader of a young team at a young age. If Brandon can make even a small incremental improvement in some areas of his game, as well as in his leadership qualities that bodes well for the Blazers this year and in the future. Like it or not, the blazers as a franchise are as much tied to Brandon as G.O. We might as well get behind him.

For better or worse, when salary goes up unbridled devotion goes down.

It’s easier to empathize with the underpaid sophomore than the fat-cat senior.

Greg Oden may be the weight behind the train but Brandon Roy is the engine.

The truth is Oden is still the key to winning a ring and Roy will have to learn to not be as much of the focal point.

Brandon Roy is a great player.
Not only do I enjoy watching Brandon Roy as a player but I’ve always thought his game was a bit of throw back.
Believe it or not, agree of disagree, the player Roy reminds me of, is Larry Bird. At any given moment on the court, it’s unlikely Brandon is the most athletic player on the court. But Roy controls the tempo, and makes things happen for himself and his teammates much in the style of a Larry Bird. I often get the same feedback I remember way back when I watched Bird. Not the fastest, not the most athletic, but at the end of the game? Often the best.

My concerns about Brandon Roy haven’t changed and they are simple.

#1. Given his admitted lack of knee cartliledge, and multiple surgeries/procedures it’s hard for me to believe he won’t have a shortened career. Can he play a full season/post season? How long before will and determination and all around skill start to lose ground to the reality of knees without cartiledge? Unfortunately, I can’t predict Brandon Roy having a long career at the highest level.

#2. Can a team built around Brandon Roy be a running team? This might sound like a contradiction given my earlier statements, and while I think Roys style of play leads people to think he’s not the most athletic player on the court, I conversely think that Brandon Roy is deceptively athletic. Watch Brandon break down his opponent, and get to the hoop, or make room to get a shot off and you realize the guy is a lot stronger than you think. However, he does seem to blossom is a controled pace. You don’t see Brandon leading a lot of fast breaks, or ending plays with thunderous dunks.

I suspect this concern the lesser of the two. I think Brandon can adapt, to the point where he knows how to be on the court and help facilitiate a line-up that wants to run when the opportunity arises. Will I ever squint and mistake Brandon Roy for the ghost of a Tom-a-hawk jamming Clyde Drexler or Jerome Kersey? No. While Brandon himself flourishes best in a slower paced game, a game itself is a big enough canvass that I think Brandon and a team that occasionally runs can co-exist with success.

So that’s it in a nutshell. What I like about Brandon Roy and what concerns me about his reality.

It’s sort of like Clyde Drexler, who went from being a worshipped icon to being “yep, it was about time they made that guy go away” man… Then he won a world championship and continued to perform at superstar level and it became clear that maybe that wasn’t the brightest decision ever made…

I worry about that happening to Brandon a little bit.

I was just thinking this myself the other day. Roy is still “the man” but I feel like rising expectations and short-term memory (hello injuries) have led to some “fans” discrediting his ability and overall effect on our team.

I know it’s just one mans statistical formula, but Neil Paine is a freaking smart guy with no agenda other than to look at data, and BRoy’s name popped up in the top 5 of various statistical attempts he made looking for players who perform better against better D versus those who play better only against weak D. The article was actually comparing Lebron/Kobe/Wade but I was a bit surprised to see how high BRoy showed up. Check it out:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7063

Seems like he’s getting worn down, probably from playing so many minutes. I’m really hoping that Wesley will be able to fill more mid-game minutes at SG. I think that my be the plan and the reason the Blazers feel he is worth so much. At this point, it’s worth WMJ’s salary just to have a healthy Roy going into the playoffs.

But his injury-prone nature is one reason he’s lost some luster in the eyes of many fans, including me. That’s not his fault, it just is.

And frankly I just think we all overrated him at the beginning because we were so starved for a star on this team we could be proud of. He’s a great player, but he’s not one of those tier 1 superstars like Kobe, Wade or Lebron.

I give him a pass for a lot of the off the court stuff because he’s young and still learning. And I blame Nate more for the dull plodding jump-shot-oriented offense than I do Roy.

Nobody…nobody was happier than I was when the Blazers traded for Brandon in the draft. I went from the depths of despair that we missed him (I wanted them to draft him at #2), to almost driving my car off the road when the announcement of the trade came through the radio. He was everything we needed in a player at that moment: solid citizen, great teammate, good leader, multi-dimensional talent who could pass, shoot, and get to the line. He surpassed even my most optimistic expectations.

However, there was one part of his game in college that has suffered in his transformation to NBA stardom. He used to be the consummate “glue” guy. A player that could go long stretches without scoring or having the ball, but still making significant contributions. I always saw him as the guy who would compliment the superstar in a championship team, not the superstar himself. I still believe that is the case, but Brandon’s aspirations appear to be interfering with that. He wants to be more, but for us to win it all, he needs to be a piece of the puzzle. I did not like the way he responded to Greg’s emergence early last year, complaining about not “getting” the offense and saying the team was better off when he had the ball more.

I can respect that this phase of the team’s transformation will be a challenge to Brandon, but I will lose respect for him if he doesn’t handle it with grace and integrity.

As it stands right now, I would trade Brandon for Chris Paul without hesitation if I knew Paul could have his contract extended. Chris Paul makes everybody better all the time. Brandon does that, but to a much lesser extent. That doesn’t mean I dislike Brandon or don’t appreciate his role in the team’s growth. It just means I can tell when one talent eclipses another.

Brandon Roy is the only superstar-quality player the Blazers have or are likely to get in this generation.

Roy’s game is not perfect but it’s both good enough and the best the Blazers are going to get.

How do you know this?

Broy for life! Dave’s right on the money, we need to appreciate. Human nature is such that we are never satisfied. Broy came back 8 days after surgery for this team and for this city. He is one of the most efficient players in the league. There was a post on BDL yesterday about top players vs. good defenses and Broy was up there ahead of kobe, wade, lebron. I’ve noticed the hate lately too, get a grip people. . He is a top notch player on and off the court and Portland is lucky to have him.

More than I was. I wanted the Stache. I worked nights at the time and slept through the first round so I had to look it up online, found out we drafted some guy named Roy, I was disappointed, I had never heard of him. A few years later, I wouldn’t want him traded, even for CP3.

He never passes to Batum (our best player) and he always waits until the very last second to win the game.

Brandon is a spectacular player, but we need to feature more offensive sets where its not him trying to drive past his defender(s) while the remaining 4 players stand around waiting for him to dish or make a bucket. Too many Iso’s are too predictable and will never be effective enough to get us far into the play-offs.

Whether Brandon has the ball or not, we need more off-the-ball movement on our offense to create more opportunities than just Brandon Roy’s playmaking via ISO’s.

I would say that any “criticism” should merely be phrased as “ways Brandon can continue to grow his game,” which is something every great player does. Jordan couldn’t hit a jump shot or play shut down D early in his career. But every year, he seemed to add another dimension to his game. Brandon can and should do the same. That’s not knocking him. That’s just solid advice.

As a huge BRoy fan, I would be giddy to see him take defense so personally that he becomes a killer on that side of the floor as well. And I think he will. He has greatness in him.

The other knocks on Brandon should be directed at his Coach. Sarge scored 6 ppg in his mediocre career, and he sees himself as the perfect model for all his players to emulate. No one is allowed to be versatile. Brandon can only play offense and has to rest on defense (what would MJ say to THAT assertion!?). Rudy can only shoot threes and isn’t allowed to create or catch any more lob passes. And if he misses, he’s out. LA can only get plays run for him in the first quarter. Greg can only block shots and rebound. Don’t try to do anything else, Greg! No one is allowed to run the floor. Ever. (Nate won’t let anyone do anything he couldn’t do with his extremely limited game.)

People say Brandon can’t play without the ball. That’s because he’s never been in an offense that didn’t require him to have the ball! How could we know? How good would Phil Jackson make Brandon Roy? It’s scary. Brandon has the tools, the unselfishness, and the clutch heart to move from top 10 to top 5 player in the league.

All he needs is a coaching change.

you’re right Dave. the Natural has spoiled us…..

I love B-Roy. He’s clutch, wants to win, and is entering his prime years. We are incredibly lucky to have such a great player—and great person—on our team.

Roy and Dwyane Wade. Assasins. They just kill you every time out, slowly, repeatedly, methodically. With the number of Kings games that I watch (all of them – pity me), I don’t spend a lot of time watching non-KIngs games, but I always stop and tune in when the Blazers are nationally televised.

I don’t know as much about Roy as any of you, but sometimes distance provides greater clarity. Once Roy starts playing again at full health, I believe that he will erase any/all doubts about his game. But be advised, I can’t be completely objective here. I may be a Kings fan, but I loooooooooooove Brandon Roy.

of him as a player hasn’t changed, but his role on the team has changed.
He isn’t the young promising star anymore. He’s now the established franchise player.
I think that the arrival of Oden clouded the fact that Roy is the true engine of this team to some. I’ve heard him referred to as selfish. I agree, but I don’t think that is a negative. The best player on an NBA team had better dang well be selfish. He has to be if the team is going to compete every night. The other knock on Brandon is that he can’t play a fast paced game, which is also not really true. He is a master at creating offense in the half court, but to say he can’t also run a full court set is like saying Iron Chef Morimoto can’t make cereal. Brandon is still the best player on this team, and one of the best in the league. He is also the most fun to watch and a great person. As a fan for over twenty years, I personally would not trade Brandon for anyone in the league.